Sahel: concern over region’s instability

Terror could spread until Mediterranean coast

(ANSAmed) - RABAT, AUGUST 2 - The collusion of separatist
movements, terrorists and religious extremists is throwing the
Sahelo-Saharan region in an unprecedented anarchy, raising fears
that instability could expand to reach the Mediterranean coast.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has alerted over the risk
of a 'Sahelistan', an area mostly covering northern Mali, where
government weakness does not allow for the control of the
immense territory, a haven for extremist groups such as Aqmi and
Mujao. Due to its proximity to Maghreb and Europe, the volatile
area could become the theatre of a worse crisis than
Afghanistan.

Spanish authorities have also sent off a message to the
international community by repatriating their citizens and other
Europeans living in the Tindouf region in northern Mali due to
the terrorist threat for foreigners.

According to Spain's diplomacy, Morocco's Map news agency
reports, political instability in Mali has led to the control of
the North by radical groups led by Mujao, an extremist group
calling for jihad in northern Africa, which has become a terror
platform in the area.

Increasingly evident are also the connections between
separatists with the Polisario Front and Aqmi, Al Qaeda in
Islamic Maghreb, who have become stronger following the
prolonged civil war in Libya. Libya's weapons arsenal is today a
great opportunity for militant groups seeking to control arms,
drugs and human trafficking in the area.

Refugee camps in Tindouf , where Italian aid worker Rossella
Urru was kidnapped with two Spanish colleagues, in northern Mali
and in Libya are viewed by extremists as lawless areas to
control, much like tribal regions on the border areas of
Afghanistan and Pakistan.

In such a context, at least seven countries are threatened by
such instability: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Mali, Niger
and Mauritania. (ANSAmed)